LogFAQs > #949719446

Iceman's Match of the Week

Monster Express (Masato Yoshino and Shachihoko BOY) vs Jimmyz (Jimmy Susumu and Jimmy Kagetora)
Dragon Gate
Gate of Passion - April 9, 2015
Match Link: https://vimeo.com/125997656

My favorite Dragongate unit of all time defending their newly-one Twin Gate titles against my second favorite. The result is quite possibly the best 2v2 match to ever take place in the Toryumon system, and while thats a hell of a big statement, its not at all unfounded.

Yoshino and Susumu each have a lot of fans that would make the claim theyre the best wrestler in company history, and Kagetora is well known as a guy who will literally always step up and deliver in the big matches even if he takes it a little easy when hes lower on the card. They each turn in some of the best performances of their career here. Yoshino is his fiery and blindingly fast self from the opening minutes on, bringing all his best impactful stuff and defiantly refusing to ever stay down no matter what the Jimmyz throw at him. Kagetora is the picture of smoothness, and he gets the chance to show off the full breadth of what is probably the coolest moveset in modern wrestling. Susumu puts in an absolutely masterful selling performance after his arm gets worked over at the beginning - he can still use it to throw his onslaught of lariats, but their effectiveness is decreased just enough that his opponents can survive one or two more than they normally could, and hell, he even remembers to wince when high-fiving his partner once. Thats the exact kind of selling I love in wrestling; if other pro athletes can compete with heavily damaged and legit broken limbs, why do some people think wrestlers have to act like amputees after a couple of arm wringers?

But I digress. Its no surprise that those three names are awesome. But by the end of the match, its the unassuming underdog in Shachihoko BOY that turns out to be the biggest star for one night only. See, this was pretty much the peak of his rollercoaster career. There were ups and downs all over the place for him, especially around this time period (and sometimes even in the same match), and most of the ups came as a result of him being Yoshinos best friend. Still, he was the designated pin eater for Monster Express and had previously only been a Triangle Gate champ, so the fact that he and Yoshino managed to win these titles in the first place was a bit of a shock.

The challengers were odds-on favorites heading into this match, and all of that leads to the incredible closing sequence. Shachis been isolated, taking every finisher in the Jimmyz book, but Yoshino manages to just barely save the day every time as the crowd goes absolutely bonkers around him. He cant keep it up forever, though, and eventually the underdog has to dig down as deep as he can to try and pull out the miracle. He knows this is probably the only time hell ever get to be a Twin Gate champion, and he desperately wants to hold onto that. But more importantly, Monster Express was a unit explicitly founded on the values of fighting with everything you had for your friends, and hes determined not to let down his best pal.

Does he succeed? Guess youll have to watch to find out.

Really, this match would have felt right at home in the last topics theme, but considering theres a fair argument to be had that its not quite even the best Dragongate match from 2015, I elected to steer clear of it there for my own self-imposed dumb logic.

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https://imgur.com/UYamul2
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